Commentary on Hope Essay -- Papers

Commentary on Hope Aimed at the older teenagers with sophisticated lexis, 'Hope' has been opened by presenting literary devices such as personification, phonological features and repetition, thus setting the scene whilst subtly stressing the conveyed mood and theme. The usage of the present tense rather than the past removes the linear dictation by time and restricts knowledge to situation rather than chronology. By applying a present tense to this text, I have removed the idea that the darkness has limits as it seems to be immovable, and because of this, the reader has to accept it's presence and learn how to benefit from the lighter area's. Within 'Hope', a musical lexis is applied to the text, creating more intensity and dynamic description to the text. The reader is instinctively drawn towards the phonological side of the scene rather than the visual as they are able to hear 'that horrific scream crescendo dynamically'. Furthermore, this centres the reader's thoughts on the unanswered questions they may have a...

Life of Pi: the Good Kind of Lie

Sometimes a lie is better than the truth. Now I’m not saying that you should lie to your parents about the dent on their car or lie to your friends about getting lucky with that girl last weekend, but every so often a situation comes along in which a small fabrication will better warrant the situation. In the novel Life of Pi, the author Yann Martel tells a fantastic story about a young boy at sea, trapped on a lifeboat with a 450lb Bengal tiger. During their journey, the unlikely castaways face an epic adventure of survival; crossing paths with such characters as a homicidal hyena, a motherly orangutan, a dead on arrival zebra, and a French blind cannibal. In the end the two find sanctuary after 227 days upon their arrival to the coast of Mexico. Now I know what you’re thinking. â€Å"This sounds pretty unbelievable†. Well you’re right to think so, but the truth in this case, is something you’re better off not knowing. The end of the novel brings about the knowledge that the animals in the story were in fact people and their grim deaths, including that of his mother, Pi had witnessed. Given the setting, this shouldn’t be seen as a lie, but rather as story telling. The act of story telling is a great thing. It can drum up adventure in the heart of the audience, make you feel a great deal of emotion for someone you’ve never met or isn’t even real, but to some it is a way to cope with an occurrence in which the truth is too terrible to deal with. We’ve always been taught never to lie and therefore it is an act that is seen as wrong be any means, however, given the right circumstances telling a lie, whether it be to yourself or to others, is the best possible way to avoid a traumatic experience of the past. Throughout the story Pi tells the more enjoyable version of his story, though the realization of this does not occur to the reader until the end of the novel. Through retrospection it is easy to see the fiction and the significance it holds. To the best of my knowledge the first part of the story appears to all be true, however, in this segment Pi does find way to state his distaste for those who only wish to believe what can be proven true and logical. The best example can be found in chapter 22 in its entirety. Being a strong believer in God, so much so that he embraces three of His religions, it is surprising that Pi can easily accept the choices of Atheists, but denounce those who are agnostic (those who don’t know who to side on the subject). Chapter 22 reads, â€Å"I can well imagine an atheists last words: , â€Å"White, white! L-L-Love! My God! —and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, â€Å"possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain,† and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story. †(Martel 80) Pi describes factuality as dry and yeastless, further strengthening the readers understanding of how he feels about logical facts. The second part of this quote that is significant is his use of the phrase â€Å"the better story†. Showing that what isn’t real is often the ‘better’. With the end of Part One of the novel comes then end of what’s real and transitions into fiction. Since the second part of the story is a fabrication in its entirety, it seems redundant to try to state the many times when fiction trumps over the truth. Instead, it seems that the better idea would be to pinpoint the section where Pi is driven to admit the truth behind his adventure at sea. The best examples of the fact vs. fiction theme come after a lengthy interrogation on Pi by Two Japanese men who represent the company who owned the freighter which was transporting Pi and his family across the ocean. After being asked the true nature of his story one too many times Pi finally broke the ice with the simple question, â€Å"So you want another story? † (380) This was then followed by the significant statement, â€Å"The world isn’t just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn’t that make life a story? † through examination of this comment it is found that he means that life is just a story told by the storyteller. Pi is saying that he willing to tell the to representatives the real story, but in knowing the real story they are missing out on the previously discussed â€Å"better story†. He brings this up further with the quote, â€Å"I know what you want. You want a story that won’t surprise you. That will confirm what you already know. That won’t make you see higher or further or differently. You want a flat story. An immobile story. You want dry, yeastless factuality. † (381) It’s obvious that Pi is warning the two men once more that the truth isn’t always what you want to hear and also further representing the theme of truth vs. iction. Though this novel is filled with different themes, and many of those who read it speculate on which is the main theme. I believe that the theme of the importance of story telling is without a doubt, Yann Martel’s main point that he tries to get across to the reader. He makes it evident in all parts of the story and the twist at the end is based on the subject. In all it is important to remember that lying is bad, but sometimes the truth is too. Storytelling is a healthy medium between the two and can even help to cope with the most traumatic of experiences.

Culture and Disease Essay

Culture is a pattern of behavior and thinking learned, shaped and shared by Europeans and Americans. It is their growing and developing bank of knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, material objects and possessions gained through generations of individual group work (Williams 1976). Any discomfort, dysfunction, distress, social problems, and alterations of behavior for Europeans and Americans are considered a disease. It is a change that disrupts the normal function of the body. It is initially believed to be caused by curses, evil spirits, or night vapors. However, in the mid-19th century the discoveries and findings of scientific works by Louis Pasteur and Koch concluded microorganisms or germs are the pathogens of infectious diseases which usually gain entrance into the body. These are microorganisms that are able to infect a host and produce a disease (Miller 2003). Subsequent studies and researches improved the concepts of healthcare. In the 21st century, Western Science of Medicine means accuracy. It is the name of the trend. Its subject the human body is likened to an outstandingly complex machine that can be figured out, customized, renovated, and its health defined and described in strictly clinical terms. Medical experts called Physicians can identify and eliminate disease-causing or etiologic organisms that originate outside the body, Surgeons evolved to be incomparable experts in dealing with acute trauma and distress, and epidemiologist uncovers the factors that determine the frequency, distribution, and determinants of diseases in human populations. These factors include the characteristics of the pathogen, the susceptibility of human population resulting from overcrowding, lack of immunization, nutritional status, inadequate sanitation procedures, locations or reservoirs where pathogens lie in wait, and the various means by which infectious disease is transmitted. Ironically, resurgence of infectious disease such as tuberculosis occurred brought about by the emergence of another infectious disease HIV/AIDS (Burton 2004). The existence of epidemic and communicable diseases in specific areas were found to follow geographic patterns. Diseases like Poliomyelitis caused by over population infected Brazilian children population, and it also infected older age Scandinavian and Americans; cholera, yellow fever and dengue infected Indians in India as a result of poor sanitation; Plague brought about by rodents are cases in the Western United States of America, and in China, it is carried by rodents and fleas infecting Chinese. These findings were important concepts for public awareness to guide travelers and servicemen (Duffy 1953). Body Tuberculosis is a chronic mycobacterial infection of the lower respiratory tract characterized by fever, night sweats, weight loss, productive cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, coughing up blood and hoarseness. It may infect lymph nodes causing systemic disease like kidney disease, urinary bladder disease and bone disease (Burton 2004). The dynamics of infection follows the following pattern: Sources of Infection > Modes of entry > Mechanism of disease > Pattern of infection > Portals of exit. Mycobacterium tuberculosis a slow-growing, acid-fast, Gram-variable bacillus is an aerobic bacillus species capable of reproducing within 16-20 hours. It is the etiologic agent of the disease called tuberculosis (Burton 2004). Mycobacterium tuberculosis developed resistance to treatment drugs. It is the second leading killer of adults in the world, with more than 2 million TB-related deaths each year (Burton 2004). Ironically, one of the endemic diseases in the United States of America is this bacterial disease called tuberculosis. In 2004 Centers for Disease and Controls, Atlanta, GA reported 14, 517 tuberculosis cases. The resurgence of tuberculosis in the United States of America in the 1980’s through 1990’s primarily resulted from the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the multi-drug resistant strains of M. tuberculosis (Burton 2004). Identification and recognition of the characteristics of the pathogen, the susceptibility of human population resulting from overcrowding, lack of immunization, nutritional status, inadequate sanitation procedures, locations or reservoirs, emigration and migration of men and animals, and stress makes people immunosuppressed resulting to infection, considering that pathogens may come primarily from infected humans, sometimes from primates, cattle and other infected mammals (Burton 2004) . There are various sources from which tuberculosis can be acquired and transmitted. It may be via airborne droplets produced by the infected organism during coughing, sneezing, even singing and prolonged direct contact with infected individuals ((Burton 2004). Prevention, Precautions, Sterilization, disinfection and Patient care would all involve airborne precautions (Burton 2004). In Clinical practice, disinfection and sterilization as well as laboratory procedures were employed being a necessity. Their scientific basis has been developed only during the past century. These important procedures are: Sterilization which is the destruction or complete removal by filtration of all forms of microorganisms including their spores; Disinfection is the destruction of many microorganisms but not usually bacterial spores; Antisepsis, is the destruction or inhibition of microorganisms in living tissues thereby limiting or preventing the harmful effect of infection; Static agent would inhibit the growth of bacteriostatic microorganisms; Bactericidal agent would kill the microorganisms; Sterilizers are chemicals which under controlled conditions kill spore-forming bacteria. These agents which perform the above functions were divided into physical agents and chemical agents. With these mechanisms, Epidemiologist and Social psychologist in the United States of America helped contribute to the study of health and to the interventions to improve people’s well-being and quality of life by promoting health and preventing illnesses. They identify psychological factors that might influence illness, and identify improved ways in which health care is delivered. This is also a form of proposition for the improvement of the health of the population by promoting healthy choices and preventing people from becoming ill. Psychologists are persuasive by appealing to fear for the negative health consequences, subsequently encouraging American families, peer and schooling young adolescents to change their health behaviors by redirecting their behavioral intentions. This is in line with the concept that the actions taken by people to safeguard their health are influenced by factors such as general health values, perceived susceptibility to illness, perceptions of illness severity, expectations of treatment success, self-efficacy, perceived barriers and benefits, and cues to action. Healthy habits that are currently recommended are vigorous regular exercise, quitting smoking, limiting alcohol intake, eating healthy foods, and getting enough sleep. Even so, considering the increased cultural mixing Of the United States of America, programs or lessons in scholastic trainings are incorporated as designed to increase intercultural communications as cultural patterns affect how people make sense of the many aspects of health care: the meanings that people give to health and illness, the causes of diseases, the means to prevent illnesses, appropriate cures, and the types of individuals most qualified to provide care and attempt to cure. In this context, magico-religious approach, holistic approach and biomedical approach are not set aside, but, the healthcare system of the United States of America is typically focused on the individual patient as the source of the medical problem in need of a cure. This is rather the biomedical approach adopted to address the issues of illness and wellness. It considers people health regardless of culture to be driven by biochemical forces. Wellness is achieved by understanding that the biochemical reaction is activated. Illness happens when a part of the normal human body metabolic activities is altered. Treatments are provided by Medical health practitioners like Doctors and Nurses, thus bringing back the normal course of bodily metabolic activities supportive of good health (Lustig 1996). In 1953 Dr. Louis H. Bauer of New York, USA as a secretary General of the World Medical Health Association outlined the major task to address medical care need from their time on, such as: 1) Rural community work to establish facilities and to encourage physicians participation; 2) provide medical care all depressed areas : 3) Extend public health coverage to depressed areas; 4) Evolve strategies to address care needs people with inborn disorders; 5) Provide insurance programs to people specially senior citizens and the disabled; 6) Eradicate graft and corruption in the Medical practice; 7) General public protection for regular Medical services; 8) Renew medical societies; and 9) Medical Health ethics education for the Medical Health practitioners (Perkins 1993). Conclusion With the advent of post-industrial age marked by the ubiquitous appearance and usages of television and the computer, supposedly a reliable indicator, most Americans should be healthy and wealthy. Being so, it could be enough to affect longevity positively, primarily through lifestyle choices, rather than lack of food or shelter and diseases (Lustig 1996). However, Studies revealed that even the introduction of Medicare in the United States, bringing the poor substantially at par with the rich in terms of health care and medical services did not eliminate or even markedly reduced the large differential mortality. In contrast, life expectancy in Japan is far above all the rest of the countries in the world. The life expectancy for males is 78 years while the life expectancy for females is 85 years, in spite of half the level of spending for healthcare than that of the United States of America amounting to around $2,000 per person, 7. 4 percent of GDP (Powell 1990). The technology used in the Japanese health care system is similar to that used in the United States of America, but, the flow of funds, the quantity and intensity of use is considerably different (Powell 1990). In Japan, all citizens are free to choose any physician and hospital. Physicians may be General Private Practitioner providing primary and secondary care, while Specialist works in hospitals. Hospitals may be large and public university hospitals with medical school, research facilities, and outpatient department for primary care while small time private practitioners have small facilities and less sophisticated treatments (Powell 1990). Knowing that tuberculosis is transmitted via airborne droplets produced by the infected organism during coughing, sneezing, even singing and prolonged direct contact with infected individuals, preventions and precautions are better than an ounce of medicine after infection. Reference Burton, G. and Engelkirk, P. (2004). Microbiology for Health Sciences. USA: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lustig, M. and Koester, J. (1996). Intercultural Competence. 6th ed. USA: HarperCollins. Powell, M. and Anesaki, M. (1990). Health Care in Japan. New York: Routledge. Duffy, John. (1953). Epidemics in Colonial America. Perkins, James E. (1952). You and Tuberculosis.

An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore

Al Gores documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, Last winter, it was so warm. It was the time when I could feel that global warming is coming to the world. My friends and other people had a big curiosity that winter was not so cold as usual temperature because the rivers in Korea were not freezing well last year and there were lack of days when we could see the snowy weather. I started to feel that the earth is getting warmer and warmer and have a concern about our earth’s problem as a student who is majoring sustainability studies. With this existing condition, much news about global warming came out let people know about why the earth is getting warm and how to prevent this situation. However, both scholars and people have a different view of whether global warming is still exist or not. The biggest reason why global warming became hot issue is because of the documentary movie, namely an Inconvenient Truth, 2006. It ranks top3 documentary; I have watched it 3 times including our class time, also it was released to Korean theater for a short time because those who care of environmental issue are not so many. An inconvenient truth is the movie having the lecture from Albert Arnold Gore Jr. who was the vice president of America. He referred his teacher, child and sister while making a progress of his lecture. He has given a similar presentation over 100 times, it deserves to catch audiences’ eyes. He didn’t miss to give a humor like he introduced himself as Al Gore who might almost become a president with a bitter laugh,. He was becoming serious by showing the graph of air temperature and density of CO2 gas which was measured by his teacher; it seemed they have a big relationship between them. Every graph which he shows was amazing and enough to give a shock to audiences. The density of CO2 gas in the air had been stable over thousands years, of course there were a few fluctuations, but recently the status of the CO2 density is climbing steeply; it hasn’t had the same status before. It is enough for audiences to be eye-catching. The thing making us more surprised was the evidences of global warming. The pictures comparing the same place by having a time gap gave me astonishment such as Mt. Kilimanjaro, Patagonia highland and Mt. Everest. The areas where usually get snow have diminished, a lot of icebergs has been melting. It means the length and quantity of the icebergs get smaller than before. Then, he put more words after the pictures like some parts in the earth will be enunciated because of the water from melted icebergs and showed us the simulation of the tragic future. He gave a story of his sister who was died as a lung cancer due to cigarette. By doing so, it made him remind of that the company of cigarette had denied that cigarette has nothing to do with the cause of lung cancer but it is proved that it is not true. Now everyone knows that cigarette is big cause of the cancer. Then, he showed many pictures of the sudden changes of the earth like north pole, Alaska, Greenland and Amazon. The image of a polar bears searching for the ice flakes looks like out tragic life; they cannot find an ice where makes stable life to them by giving the spaces stepping on an ice. It means they are losing their spaces they live as the same with our spaces where will sink soon. If we can be sure global warming one hundred percent, do you think it is the human’s responsibility? Al Gore showed the persuasive graph of relationship between CO2 gas and temperature through the result of analyzing north pole’s sample in iceberg. It had never gone up over 300ppm for CO2 gas before, now it breaks a new record and would go over 400 or 500pppm in several years. It will bring about hot temperature because these green house gases will keep the heat energy which is supposed to go out of the earth. Someone says that the reason why the earth’s temperature is getting higher is due to the active activity of sunspot; many sunspots show that it is the time for sun to act very actively so it gives more radiation out of sun. Of course, it could make the earth get hotter. However, in the trustworthy journal, the activity of sun improves 0. 2 ~ 0. 4 percent, this could make an impact to get the temperature hot during centuries. However, it cannot explain the sudden improving rate, 0. 8 percent, in 20 century. Also, it doesn’t explain this situation that this situation is getting accelerated. There is an inconvenient point in the movie â€Å"an inconvenient truth†. First of all, the cause of the rise of sea level is not explained properly. It usually occurs because of temperature rising of sea making water swell. Originally the bond in ice is so strong making it compact each other, by getting heated the molecules in water become free to move, they have more space and mobility. However, this documentary movie shows the reality to us. The temperature change due to global has already become an inconvenient reality. Inland starts to make lots of dust as higher temperature makes it drier. It’s the reality for us to close up our mouth with a mast while roaming around. Many medias have still informed that both global warming and climate change are the scientific point of view but there is so specific answer of this. However, most scientists agree that there is global warming and it has a lot of things to do with human beings’ responsibility. Now it is not a stage where we have to debate whether this is global warming or not. We should adjust to the changing climate, put effort to give a solution to reduce green house gases. This has already become big social, political and economical problem getting out of scientific issue. This An Inconvenient Truth would be not knowable truth to someone but for the others they should know about that. It is the fact for us to realize that we should change something right now; we need to start to change our way of living by looking back ourselves’ life. Like Al gore’s argument, it could not disappear as it is not easily seen for us. Much bigger the importance of our environment is as we ignore more. The main convict and victim are us, so we need to know how much products we should buy, how much electricity we use, what kind of car we drive and how we deal with this situation then we can live well off in this earth

Aristotle on the Nature of the Greek Polis Essay

Aristotle on the Nature of the Greek Polis - Essay Example The title of the issue shows that this section of the book talks about classical world and phenomenon of polis in ancient Greek history1. This chapter helps us understand the importance of Greek polis, which lasts for only two centuries. Further, it is noticeable from this chapter that Greek poleis were politically established and philosophical implications had a long term effect on Greek cities and practices of the societal members2. Characterization of the cities reflects their nature such as political and philosophical influence on the cities showed their aristocratic nature. It is evident from the aristocratic touch that has been observed from the cities` festival, cultural practices, temples and energetic blood relationships. 3Further this section of the book highlights that family bonds were categorized in various categories depending upon their educational statuses and power distribution among the citizens. It helps us learn that ethically these sub-divisions are made correctl y because with respect to norms and cultural values of the societies, categorization should base upon the constitutional actions of the citizens within the community. The author of the chapter clearly stated, "The importance of polis is not cultural, but institutional. This statement shows that the Greek cities were not famous or important because of the people`s cultural rituals and practices, but mainly because of its organizational value. It means the manner in which the Poleis of the Greek were designed and established to maintain good standard of living4.Additionally; it is more because poleis of the Greek were more in political control rather than tribal influence. This source assist us insight the socio-political matters of the Greek cities and their fundamentals of sub-divisions in the societies. This source further informs about the influence of Hesiod, Plato and Aristotle and the way their role influenced both rich and poor people of the society. Additionally, it has notic ed that impact of Aristotle and Plato had modified the diplomatic matter of the regions such as Sparta and Athens. Mostly importantly this source helps us understand the reason behind downfall of Greek polis. The author has quoted "the pathos of the polis was the pathos of a dynamic participation of the people in a culture and originated in the aristocratic society. Further it has explained that because of aristocratic attributes citizens of the polis were unable to get chance of becoming true members of the state. This section of the book clearly reflect nature and characteristics of the Greek culture in which local institutions had a major role and they formed to keep poleis away from the big territories and unity of the societal members was not secured. Further, promises that were made to bring positive changes in the Greek societies and to improve standard of living of the people are clearly mentioned to help us understand the efforts made by the Greek people to maintain socio-c ultural practices of their communities5. However, despite such efforts there was no unity among the citizens and maintenance of the Greek Poleis was in danger and at last it came to an end6.This source has provided detailed information about Aristotle`s role and downfall the Greek cities. Undoubtedly, this source has explored historical

Discuss the ways of platelets storage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Discuss the ways of platelets storage - Essay Example The first and foremost step after the collection for separating platelets is to screen the blood for bacteria as well for other diseases which include hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV (Kaufman 2006). Also another step before the separation of platelets is to actually make all the preparations before the blood is drawn from the donor. This includes making all the necessary preparations so that the withdrawal procedure is made sterile from the point of blood drawing till the point of infusion to the patient (Tullis et al 1959). The blood is drawn from the patient in a container which contains ACD solution added to it. It is also ensured that blood is drawn in a clean method with no requirement for giving a second puncture as this is an important protocol of platelet collection that blood should be drawn from one puncture. This blood is circulated through a tube of plastic which is maintained at a temperature of 4 degrees centigrade. The blood flows in this chamber and the residue that is left flows into a separate pool and this residue is basically the plasma which is devoid of red and white blood cells and contain only platelets. This platelet containing plasma is then passed through another chamber such that 10 ml of the fluid flows in every one minute. The platelets flow into a collector where they are maintained at 250 x gravity.

Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Entrepreneurship - Essay Example 03), Buchanan and Vanberg (1991), and Littlechild (1986) to conduct an in-depth study of three of the most fundamental processes of entrepreneurship namely the creation, recognition and the discovery of the opportunity. For the recognition of opportunity, an entrepreneur should know the nature of the situation at hand whereas the distinction between opportunity creation and discovery activates the entrepreneur’s ontological curiosity to question the existence of opportunity. Differentiating between the three distinct forms of the processes of entrepreneurship helps understanding the context i.e. opportunity recognition for the application of the typical understanding of risk and rationality. The author finds that several unexplored dimensions of the link between risk and rationality are reflected in the selected process of entrepreneurship, each of which is a potential area for conducting further research. Knight (1921) calls this true uncertainty. The author comments upon num erous aspects of the claims made by Knight (1921). The use of probability theory for framing the risky decisions precedes the precursors of Knight’s claims. Knight’s emphasis upon the link between rationality and decisions to maximize the results of the statistical probability is consistent with the thinking that cultivated in the age of the Enlightenment of Europe. The author finds that the conventional perspectives of the risk and rationality are based on a lot of restrictive assumptions that contrasts with the exploratory nature of the innovative processes. In the latter part of the research the author identifies the insinuations of the process-contingent trait of the risk and rationality. The author asserts that entrepreneurs frequently switch among different rationalities rather than sticking to a particular kind of rationality. Entrepreneurs display various rationalities contrary to the conventional understanding of the risk and rationality as the supporting fact ors of the